1 . On June 23,2018,twelve young Thai boys and their assistant football coach wandered into a karst cave in northern Thailand, near the border with Myanmar. What happened next would grab the world’s attention and lead to a complex and daring international rescue operation. The 10.3-kilometer-long Tham Luang cave flooded, trapping the boys in total blackness nearly 2.5 kilometers from the cave entrance.
Thousands of people from around the globe participated in the rescue effort, including military personnel, medical experts and the rock stars of the operation — cave divers. The divers, who safely removed all of the Thai children and their coach after 18 days underground, dealt with tight spaces and low visibility in muddy water- conditions that would prove deadly: Saman Gunan, a former Thai Navy Seal, died while transporting air tanks into the cave.
While the sport of cave diving had received attention in the pop culture area prior to the rescue mission in North Thailand, there is little doubt that the brave divers at Tham Luang cave helped push the activity and its varieties of risks into global society’s minds.
The sport-often referred to as among the world’s most dangerous recreational activities-has its roots in pre-WWII England. Since then, the recreational practice of cave diving, described by Australian cave explorer Richard Harris (a participant in the Tham Luang cave rescue) as an “unusual hobby” for “the ordinary,” has spread around the world-China included.
Over 1,000 kilometers northeast of Tham Luang cave, in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, lies karst-peak-covered Du’an county-China’s little-known cave diving Mecca.
Home to thousands of kilometers of underground rivers, Du’an county offers divers spellbinding geological formations, perhaps the world’s largest collection of blind fish species and a rare variety of freshwater jellyfish.
1. What do we know about the Tham Luang cave rescue operation?| A．There was no loss of life in the process. | B．Rock stars took part in the rescue efforts. |
| C．Rescue team came from more than Thailand. | D．Few people cared about it outside Thailand. |
| A．Its dangerous recreations. | B．Its long history. |
| C．An expert’s description. | D．The divers’ heroic deeds. |
| A．It is northeast of Tham Luang cave. | B．There are lots of underground rivers. |
| C．It is hardly known to the outside world. | D．It has the world’s largest geological formations. |
| A．Spectacular cave diving experiences in Du’an. |
| B．Diving instructions shared by Richard Harris. |
| C．Lessons learned from this rescue operation. |
| D．Foods offered to tourists in Du’an. |
2 . Rocky Lyons was five years old when his mother, Kelly, was driving along the country road with him. He was asleep on the front seat of their truck, with his feet resting on her lap. As his mom drove carefully down the winding country road, she turned onto a narrow bridge. The truck hit a rock and slid off the road. She attempted to bring it back up onto the road by pressing hard on the gas pedal(踏板)and turning the steering wheel to the left. But Rocky's foot got caught between her leg and the steering wheel and she lost control of the truck.
The truck fell into a 20-foot ravine(峡谷). When it hit the bottom,Rocky woke up. “What happened, Mom?” he asked. “Our wheels are pointing toward the sky.”
Kelly was seriously wounded and blinded by blood. “I’ll get you out, Mom, ” announced Rocky, who had surprisingly escaped injury. He climbed out from under Kelly, slid through the open window and tried to yank his mother out. But she didn’t move.
“Just let me sleep,” begged Kelly,who was out of consciousness(意识). Rocky insisted,“Mom, you can’t go to sleep.”
Rocky managed to push Kelly out of the truck and told her he’d climb up to the road and stop a car to get help. Fearing that no one would be able to see her little boy in the dark, Kelly refused to let him go alone. Instead they slowly moved up to the road. The pain was so great that Kelly wanted to give up, but Rocky wouldn’t let her.
Rocky kept repeating the inspirational phrase, “I know you can. I know you can.” When they finally reached the road, Rocky broke into tears seeing his mother’s torn face clearly for the first time. Waving his arms and shouting, “Please stop!” the boy stopped a truck. His mother was sent to hospital.
It took eight hours to rebuild Kelly’s face. She looks quite different today-she has a few scars but has recovered from her injuries.
Rocky’s heroics were big news. Everyone was surprised at this little boy’s power. “It’s not like I wanted it to happen,” the boy explained. “I just did what anyone would have done.” “If it weren’t for Rocky, I’d have died,” said his mother.
1. What do we know about Rocky and Kelly?| A．They were lost on a country road. |
| B．They were involved in a truck accident. |
| C．They had limited time to find their way. |
| D．They knew little of what happened to them. |
| A．The truck had turned over. |
| B．He couldn’t find his mother. |
| C．He had been stuck in the truck. |
| D．His mother had passed out. |
| A．Pull. | B．Drive. |
| C．Follow. | D．Carry. |
| A．Enthusiastic and kind. |
| B．Courageous and calm. |
| C．Cooperative and generous |
| D．Adventurous and energetic. |
3 . Nearly two years ago, Lauren Kornacki, a recent college graduate, walked outside her family’s home in Virginia to ask her dad if she could borrow his car. As she rounded the corner from the front yard into the garage, Lauren, saw her father, Ale, lying unconscious, pinned on his back beneath his car. The car had fallen off the jack while he was changing the brake pads on the right rear tire.
Lauren yelled inside at her mother to call emergency services, and then ran to the car. “I thought, I’m going to lose my dad,” she says. Unsure of what to do, she stuck both hands under the wheel hub where Alec had removed the tire and pulled up with all her strength. To her surprise, she lifted the car. Then she held it up with one arm and, with the other, pulled her father out from under the car by his pants leg.
Alec wasn’t breathing, so Lauren, a lifeguard certified in CPR, began performing chest compressions. Within seconds, Alec took a breath and opened his eyes. “Stay with me,” Lauren whispered as they waited for the ambulance. “Just keep breathing.”
Doctors treated Alec for five fractured ribs, a fractured sternum, and fractured vertebrae, but he was able to return to his job as an IT professional two months later. Lauren, now a computer engineer, says she didn’t stop to think. “Everyone has a basic instinct to help the ones they love,” she say.
1. What had happened about her father when Lauren arrived at the garage?| A．He was replacing a part of his car. |
| B．He was lying at the right side of his car. |
| C．He was pressed under his car out of consciousness. |
| D．He was repairing the right rear tire of his car on the jack. |
| A．Her father could escape the death. | B．She hadn’t expected her effort so effective. |
| C．She was very anxious to save her father. | D．The car was not that heavy as she thought. |
| A．Professional emergency service. | B．Unconditional love from a daughter. |
| C．A strong and tough body. | D．A timely professional first aid. |
| A．The Girl Lifted a Car off Her Dad | B．The Gil Breathed Life into Her Dad |
| C．Dad Got Pinned Beneath a Car | D．A Loving Daughter and a Lucky Dad |
The Lomax family needed a dog. Though their house was already full with seven people, they knew a dog would truly make the house a home. So they settled on a dog whom they named Jack. It turned out to be the best decision they ever made.
It was Jack’s protective instinct(本能) that would save the lives of the Lomax family. If it wasn’t for him, the family may never have survived the terrible accident that would eventually befall one cold January day in 2020.
It was a night like many others. Autumn, the family’s youngest child and her mother Ashley had settled into bed in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. Jack, who rarely left Autumn’s side, had settled in there as well. Little did they know that something terrible was about to happen that night. While the family was fast asleep, a fire had started in one of the other second floor bedrooms. Jack had picked up a whiff (些微的气味) of smoke in the next room. In an instant, the brave dog jumped into action.
The four-legged family member knew something was wrong but had no way of telling his owners. He jumped up Ashley’s bed and began touching her face. She pushed him off her bed and tried to roll over but he began again, until she was up.
As soon as she could, Ashley took hold of Autumn and began to move away from the door. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran from the room, alerting the rest of the family to the disaster that was taking place. Jack did his part again too, barking loudly. Ashley’s screams woke the four other adults and two more children. All of them headed out into the cold January night. In no time, the fire had engulfed (吞没) nearly the entire home, but luckily, all of them had made it out alive, with Jack leading the way.
1. Why did the Lomax family raise a dog? (No more than 15 words)2. What does the underlined word mean in the 2nd paragraph? (No more than 3 words)
3. Which floor did Jack sleep? (No more than 5 words)
4. What did Jack do when he sensed something wrong? (No more than 10 words)
5. What do you think of Jack? Please explain? (No more than 20 words)
5 . When I set out to drop my dad at the airport, it was dark and dull. It started to rain on the way. When I left the airport, the visibility wasn’t clear because of the drops of rain. It was before 6 am.
Even though the road conditions were poor, I drove at my normal speed. I was angry with the more cautious drivers ahead of me that were delaying my drive. The exit ramp (坡道) to the highway was a tight spiral (急盘旋). It is a dangerous spot in good weather and totally scary when the weather is miserable or it is dark. But I didn’t want to slow down and arrive home any later than necessary. I drove down the ramp too fast. The road was wet and my car slid, landing face down on the ramp.
I didn’t like to drive by myself at the time and had insisted on taking my husband and son with me on the trip. Thankfully, I was alone in the car. My accident was slight. In fact, I was lucky enough not to have a single scratch. I started to shake when thinking the injuries my son would have suffered had he been in the backseat of that car with no seatbelt when it rolled. After the car rolled three times, I found my mobile phone was lost in a pile of small things that were all lying in the bottom of the car. A lady was kind enough to let me borrow her mobile phone, but without the numbers pre-programmed (预编的), who could I call? I was lucky enough to remember my father’s mobile phone number, and fortunate that he hadn’t yet got on his plane.
You never know when an accident will happen. As a driver, I will keep safety in mind by obeying all traffic laws and have safe-driving habits, especially in bad weather. Insist your children always wear their seatbelts. Life is a journey and everyone should value it and enjoy the ride.
1. What happened to the author’s car?| A．It crashed into another one. |
| B．It lay upside down after the slide |
| C．It slid and stopped in the middle or the highway. |
| D．It was out of control and struck a tree by the side of the ramp. |
| A．The author. | B．The author’s son. |
| C．The author’s husband. | D．The author’s father. |
| A．She knew her father hadn’t got on the plane. |
| B．Her husband was too busy to answer her phone. |
| C．Her husband’s mobile phone was out of service at that time. |
| D．She only brought her father’s phone number back to her mind. |
| A．To summarize her bad driving habits. |
| B．To analyze the cause of the accident. |
| C．To put forward some advice for others. |
| D．To make some comments on traffic laws. |
6 . People know the dangers of fires. It’s good for a family to learn how to prepare for afire.
Put a smoke alarm in the house. Smoke from a fire causes the alarm to go off.
Practice for a fire at home now and then because it can teach children about fire safety. Everyone in the family should know the following fire rules:
▲Don’t open a hot door! The fire can grow more quickly if you open the door.
▲Stay close to the floor! Everyone should follow your plan.
| A．Make escape plans. |
| B．Here are some suggestions. |
| C．The alarm makes a loud sound. |
| D．If there is a fire, don’t forget to call 119 for help. |
| E．The best air is near the floor because smoke rises. |
7 . One day, Lisa Holman told her family she would be out that night visiting her friend, only about half an hour’s drive from her house. So it was not alarming as the night grew on and she did not arrive home. As 11 pm passed, her family began to worry. They called her but did not get any answer. They then reached out to Lisa’s best friend, who said Lisa had left to drive home at 9 that night.
The family thought about calling the police that evening but the police typically don’t define a person missing unless there is no contact for 24 hours. The next morning there was still no sign of Lisa. All the family could do was sit home and wait. Lisa’s son decided to drive along Lisa’s route and carefully look for her. He found Lisa’s car had crashed into a tree. What’s worse, there was no sign of Lisa at all.
The family called the police. The police began their search. But due to the heavy rain, the search team was called back. The family was very disappointed but still hopeful and continued the search. 700 feet from Lisa’s car, they finally found Lisa under a rock.
After a few days in hospital, Lisa recovered. She explained that she passed out after her car slid off the road in the rain. After she came to herself, Lisa managed to climb out of the car. While walking to find help, Lisa was exhausted and unable to figure out the direction. So she couldn’t walk on and climbed under a rock as it started raining again. Scared as she was, she turned to her faith in hopes of living to see her son again.
1. When should Lisa arrive home after visiting her friend?| A．About 9 pm. | B．About9:30pm. | C．About 11pm. | D．The next morning. |
| A．Lisa stayed with her best friend. |
| B．The rocks had blocked all the roads up. |
| C．The police usually refused to come at night. |
| D．They had been out of touch with Lisa for less than a day. |
| A．She was lost. | B．She was injured. |
| C．She was locked in her car. | D．She was caught by heavy rain. |
8 . Schools across the US East Coast canceled outdoor activities, commercial airline traffic was slowed and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in thick and yellow smoke.
“It’s critical that Americans experiencing dangerous air pollution, especially those with health conditions, listen to local authorities to protect themselves and their families,” US President Joe Biden said.
New York’s world-famous skyline, usually visible for miles, disappeared because of the smoke, which some residents said made them feel unwell.
“It makes breathing difficult,” Mohammed Abass said as he walked down Broadway in Manhattan. “I’ve been scheduled for a road test for driving, for my driving license today, and it was canceled.”
“It looks like Mars out there,” said Fox Forecast Center meteorologist Brian Mastro just before 2 p.m.
New York Goveror Kathy Hochul called the situation an “emergency crisis,” noting that the air pollution index for parts of her state were eight times above normal.
In Bethesda, Maryland, a high school moved its graduation ceremony indoors, while a Brooklyn, New York, elementary school deferred its “Spring Fling” dance party. A school in Montelair, New Jersey, called off a fifth-grade trip to an amusement park.
The smoke was wafting (飘荡) over the US northern border from Canada, where hundreds of forest fires have burnt 9. 4 million acres and forced 120,000 people from their homes in an unusually early and intense start to Canada’s wildfire season.
Tyrone Sylvester, 66, playing chess outside in Manhattan’s Union Square us he has on most days for 30 years, but wearing a mask, said he had never seen the city’s air quality so bad. “When the sun looks like that,” he said, pointing at the smoky sky, “we know something’s wrong. This is what global warming looks like.”
Poor air quality is likely to continue into the weekend, with a developing storm system expected to shift the smoke westward across the Great Lakes and deeper south through the Ohio Valley and into the mid-Atlantic region, AccuWeather said.
1. What do we know about Mohammed Abass?| A．He took a test for driving. | B．He had no driving license. |
| C．He had some health conditions. | D．He stayed indoors as expected. |
| A．Put off. | B．Took over. | C．Came up with. | D．Did away with. |
| A．Canada’s poor management. | B．The areas affected by wildfires. |
| C．The cause of America’s smoke. | D．The consequences of air pollution. |
| A．New York City smoke situation is not uncomfortable. |
| B．A strong wind will probably relieve the poor air quality. |
| C．Citizens have found new ways to fight climate changes. |
| D．The city’s air pollution doesn’t relate to global warming. |
9 . Notre-Dame, the cathedral (大教堂) that serves as one of Paris’s most beloved monuments, is on fire. According to The New York Times, the fire began around 6: 30 p.m. local time, when tourists urgently rushed out of the building. While Andre Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral, told The Times, that the cause of the fire is still unknown and that no one has been hurt while damage to the building appears catastrophic(灾难性的).
CNN reports that over 400 firefighters have been sent to fight the fire, but that they may be unable to save the cathedral. Built in the 12th century, Notre-Dame houses several relics important to Catholics (天主教徒). NBC News reports that relics from Saint Genevieve and Saint Denis may been lost, together with a relic believed to be from Jesus Christ’s crown of thorns, but it states that authorities now believe that the cathedral has been saved from “total destruction”.
Notre-Dame is visited by a reported 30, 000 people a day and 13 million people per year. Its destruction represents a global cultural loss. “This is just horrible”, Mohamed Megdoul, 33, a film producer and witness to the fire told The Times, speaking through tears. “A thousand years of history is being wiped away. This belonged to the whole world, and now it’s disappearing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his sadness on Twitter. “Notre-Dame of Paris in flames,” reads an English translation of his statement. “Emotion for a whole nation. Thoughts for all Catholics and for all the French. Like all our countrymen, I’m sad together to see this part of us burn.” Other politicians, including Melanis Trump, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, U. K. Prime Minister Theresa May also shared their sadness on Twitter.
1. What do we know about Notre-Dame according to the passage?| A．It has been completely destroyed by the fire. |
| B．It’s a huge political loss to the world. |
| C．It’s only meaningful to Catholics. |
| D．The reason of the fire remained to be found out. |
| A．The history of France is destroyed because of the fire. |
| B．The loss the fire caused is huge. |
| C．The damage of Notre-Dame is being wiped off. |
| D．The cathedral has been saved from “total destruction”. |
| A．To report a disaster of Notre-Dame. |
| B．To express people’s sadness of the destruction. |
| C．To emphasize the value of Notre-Dame. |
| D．To show the concerns from the worldwide. |
10 . Best friends since seventh grade, Torrie Norwood, 16, and Azarria Simmons, 17, had just spent a Saturday night out when they decided to head home. As they drove back to their hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, another car crashed into them. After a while, Torrie opened her eyes and realized that the car had pushed hers into a tree in the middle of someone’s front yard.
Then the screaming started. “It’s gonna blow! ” yelled the gathering crowd as the pickup truck went up in smoke. Torrie’s door wouldn’t open, but her window had been knocked out during the crash, so she had an obvious escape route.
“Everyone ran down the street because we all thought the car was going to blow up, ” Torrie says. “But then I turned around, and I didn’t see Azarria running with us. I had to run back to the car to see if she was still in there and she was. ”
Things didn’t look good. “She was unresponsive (无反应的) in the back seat, ” says Torrie. “I had to drag her out because she wasn’t moving or breathing. There was glass and blood everywhere.“ Luckily she managed to pull her out. Torrie told a bystander to call 911 and got to work. Then she started CPR (心肺复苏) on her friend. After 30 chest compressions (挤压) and two rescue breaths, Azarria began to show signs of life. Just then, the paramedics (急救人员) rolled up ready to rush Azarria to the nearest hospital.
Azarria survived the accident, thanks to Torrie’s quick actions. But she couldn’t have saved her friend’s life if she hadn’t received CPR training. That’s an important lesson for everyone who hasn’t done that yet. “I feel like CPR training should be a requirement in schools, ”Torrie says. “It is something we can use for the rest of our lives.”
1. What did Torrie realize when she opened her eyes?| A．She had caused a traffic accident. |
| B．She was in an accident with her friend. |
| C．Her car had damaged someone’s house. |
| D．Her car hit a tree because of her carelessness. |
| A．She was no longer worried about her safety. |
| B．She left something important in it. |
| C．She was worried about her friend. |
| D．She was concerned about her car. |
| A．Curious and generous. | B．Patient and kind. |
| C．Courageous and calm. | D．Modest and talented. |
| A．We should call for help when in danger. |
| B．We should drive very carefully. |
| C．It’s necessary to help others. |
| D．It’s important to learn CPR. |
